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Introduction | Contents | Foreword | Testing
 | Robert Hirsch Exploring Color Photography, Fifth edition (Focal Press, 2011) Chapter: 2 Section: 24 Paragraph: 1498 Buy this book |
William Christenberry Double Cola Sign, Memphis, Tennessee 1966Chromogenic color print 11 x 14 ins Provided by the artist - William Christenberry William Christenberry grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and has referenced his home environment in his work since he began making color photographs in the 1960s. He states, “This is and always will be where my heart is. It is what I care about. Everything that I want to say and try to say through my work comes out of that, the feelings about that place, its positive aspects and its negative aspects. For a long time it was the poorest [county in the state], but it is also a county with great lore and legend … One thing that is quite interesting is the response that people in Alabama have had to my work … They think that I am being critical of Alabama and the South. On the contrary it is a love affair with the place. I just happen to choose the passing of time and its effect on things for aesthetic interest.” LL/41554 |
David Levinthal Untitled 1994Polaroid Polacolor print 24 x 20 ins Stellan Holm Gallery Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery, New York, NY. In much of David Levinthal’s work, including the series Mein Kampf , the artist uses a large-format Polaroid camera with Polacolor ER Land Film, which allows him to alter the sense of scale in his images and make toy figures appear lifelike. He tells us, “Working, as I have for over 30 years, with toy figures and models, you often will discover new ideas as the work progresses. The instant viewing that Polaroid provides is a critical part of this process … Being able to work so quickly also enhances the sense of discovery.” LL/41555 |
William Eggleston Untitled 1980Dye-transfer print 20 x 16 ins Cheim & Read Gallery Courtesy of Cheim and Read, New York, NY. The 1976 debut of William Eggleston’s Guide at the Museum of Modern Art marks the color photograph’s entrée into the world of fine art. Critics of Eggleston claim he is a slumming aristocrat whose photographs are not worthy of a frame of film. His admirers counter by saying he possesses the gift of being able to make photographs out of nothing. At his best, the seemingly casual and dispassionate manner of his images masks his adroitness as a caustic yet affectionate memoirist of the banality and strangeness of everyday America in which objects take on a personality and become portraits. LL/41556 |
Joel Meyerowitz Book cover for Joel Meyerowitz "Cape Light", expanded edition (Bulfinch, 2002) 2002Book cover Amazon - USA LL/41515 |
Jeff Wall Dead Troops Talk (a vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986) 1992Transparency in lightbox 90 1/8 x 164 1/8 ins Provided by the artist - Jeff Wall Jeff Wall’s canvas-size fabricated photograph, situated on the divide between chemical and digital practice, meditates on war. Inspired by Goya, his giant lightbox tableau imagines 13 dead Russian soldiers who appear totally uninterested in the living. This approach is significant, for it acknowledges the role of the artist in representing physical and psychic pain. It dismantles the limited and lingering notion that a photograph is an objective mirror, instead of an expressive medium capable of portraying multiple realities. In her book Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), Susan Sontag used this image to conclude that we, who have not directly experienced “their” specific dread and terror, cannot understand or imagine their suffering. LL/41558 |
Bill Jay John Szarkowski n.d.Gelatin silver print Provided by the artist - Bill Jay Courtesy of Bill Jay, © Bill Jay LL/10200 |
René De Carufel Joel Meyerowitz 2005, MayEpson inkjet print (Hahnemuhle paper) 10 x 10 in Provided by the artist - René de Carufel Courtesy of René de Carufel LL/8579 |
| Created by Robert Hirsch and based upon his book Exploring Color Photography, Fifth edition (Focal Press, 2011) Courtesy of Robert Hirsch and Focal Press. Users of this website are recommended to purchase the book. |
